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Morocco's major unions protest austerity measures nationwide

Xinhua, February 25, 2016 Adjust font size:

Morocco's major unions staged a 24-hour strike on Wednesday to protest against government reforms on pensions and subsidies.

The Islamist led government has implemented a number of unpopular austerity measures including increasing oil related products and public cuts.

Its cabinet also approved a pension reform draft bill which proposes to gradually raise the retirement age of public servants from 60 to 63 by 2019, and increase their contributions to the pension scheme by 14 percent.

These measures have stirred numerous protests, such as the massive protests in the Moroccan capital Rabat in January against the controversial cuts in educational cost.

The unions vowed to block the pension reforms, which were considered to damage workers' rights.

This is the second general strike against the current government, though the first one in 2014 gained a limited success.

The strike was called for by Morocco's four largest labor unions who said the national participation in the strike amounted to 85 percent, whereas no official data has been released.

As for the economic capital of the country, Casablanca, local authorities revealed that nearly 70 percent of public servants partook in the strike. Endit